Sony Pictures Animation sold “KPop Demon Hunters” to Netflix late last year. The film had originally been developed and greenlit by them before they got rid of the rights. From its initial announcement to being picked up by the streamer, it took almost four years.
Sony Pictures CEO Ravi Ahuja admitted yesterday that maybe, just maybe, the studio fumbled when it handed “KPop Demon Hunters“— now the most-watched title in Netflix history — straight to streaming (TheWrap).
Speaking at the Bank of America conference, Ahuja called it “part of that huge output deal” with Netflix signed back in 2021.
“Obviously, in hindsight, it’s such a big hit,” he said. “Netflix paid the whole cost, plus a profit premium. At the time, it made sense. But now you look at the success and think maybe it could have been theatrical.”
That’s an understatement. Netflix not only launched the animated K-pop genre musical on the platform, it also gave it a two-day limited theatrical push, which ballooned thanks to word of mouth, and finished #1 that weekend with a $20M haul, and that’s despite AMC refusing to screen it.
Still, Ahuja insists the movie was in “the right home.” Translation: Sony doesn’t actually own the thing. Netflix does. “We made it entirely for them. We participate in the music through Sony Music Publishing,” he admitted. Sequels, though, are in the works, with Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans returning to direct. Netflix is in charge of distributing those, and given their history, I doubt they will be given theatrical treatment.
There’s a bit of corporate spin here — Ahuja framing the deal as proof that Sony is “happy when our clients do well.” However, buried in his comments is obvious regret. There’s no way to spin that. Would ‘KPop’ have been as big of a hit had it not been a theatrical release via Sony? That's the real question being asked, by many in the industry, and there isn’t really a clear answer. We’ll never know.